Shillong, Dec 3: There is no proposal to upgrade the College of Agriculture in Meghalaya to a university, the Lok Sabha was told on Tuesday.
This was stated by union minister of state for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Bhagirath Choudhary in reply to a question from Shillong MP Ricky AJ Syngkon during the ongoing winter session of the Parliament.
“For scientific research and to support agricultural development in Meghalaya, the Government has established Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) for North Eastern Hill (NEH) Region, Umiam; seven krishi vigyan kendras (KVKs) and three colleges – College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences, Barapani; College of Community Science, Tura; and College of Agriculture, Kyrdemkulai,” the MoS said.
Earlier, Choudhary informed that there are three central agricultural universities, four ICAR’s deemed to be universities, and four central universities with Agriculture faculty in which there is no proposal to upgrade existing colleges of agriculture to full-fledged universities.
Since agriculture including agricultural education is a state subject, the state government can upgrade or open new agricultural university as per the requirement of the state for the purpose of agricultural education, research and extension, he added.
